(a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved piano-type toy intended to help children to learn musical notes and scales and to practice keyboard exercises.
Existing toy musical instruments of this type only makes a sound when a key is touched, and do not show which note of the scale is being played, so these existing instruments are unable to help generate a cognitive connection between each key and the corresponding sound it produces.
This invention provides a piano-type instrument which provides a visual display indicative of or corresponding to the sound made.
An object of the invention is to provide a mechanism that can recognize the note of the musical scale corresponding with key touch motion and can also play the piano by push-down motion of an indicia rod.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
This invention relates to the improvement of the piano type toy instrument for children to learn the sound scales on. There are several instruments that teach the sound scales by showing the notes on a musical scale according to the piano keys played, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,062 and No. 4,366,741.
But, they provide very intricate structures that are difficult to apply in the toy piano.
On the other hand, there are toy pianos show in Japan, U. M. Publication No. 31-19658 and No. 35-20222, but they do not show the sound scale corresponding to key motion, and only show a moving butterfly wing or eye light in accordance with key motion.